Oscar Paul was born in Freiwaldau in Silesia (now Gozdnica in the Województwo lubuskie of the Poland).
He went to school in Görlitz, and studied under Louis Plaidy, Ernst Richter and Moritz Hauptmann at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig.
After spending time in different German towns, he returned to Leipzig in 1866 to give private lessons in harmony.
His students included: Felix Weingartner, Leoš Janáček,[3] Fanny Davies,[4] Cornelis Dopper,[5] Alfred Hill,[6] Hans Huber,[7] Ferdinand Pfohl,[citation needed] Anna Diller Starbuck,[8] Theodore Baker,[9] W. Waugh Lauder (the only Canadian student of Franz Liszt),[10] Rudolf Breithaupt, Johannes Gelbker,[11] Emil Kronke,[7] Heinrich Ordenstein,[7] Albert Ross Parsons,[12] and Otto Schweizer.
[2] In 1872, he produced his magnum opus, his translation and elucidation of the five-volume work De institutione musica by Boethius.